The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  One example65 was King Philip of Macedon sending secret assassins to Argos to kill Philopoemen, thinking that the Achaeans would once again become submissive if he were out of the way; but news of the plot leaked out, and that did grave damage to Philip’s popularity and reputation among the Greeks.66

  Then there was the instance when the Boeotians were besieging Megara, and expecting to take it quickly.67 Suddenly, a report reached them that Philopoemen was on his way to help the besieged, and was already nearing the city. That was quite untrue – but the Boeotians still abandoned their ladders, though they were already in position against the walls, and turned tail in flight.

  A further example came when Nabis, the successor of Machanidas as tyrant of Sparta, had suddenly captured Messene.68 As it happened, Philopoemen held no public office at the time, and had no forces under his command. First he tried to persuade the Achaean general Lysippus69 to march to the Messenians’ assistance, but Lysippus refused, claiming that the city was already lost now that the enemy was inside the walls. Philopoemen went anyway to the city’s aid, and with him went his own fellow-citizens, without waiting for any legal enactment or formal election, following their superior as if he were their natural leader at all times. When news reached Nabis that Philopoemen was already near, he did not stay his ground, even though he was encamped in the city itself; instead, he stole out of some other gate and quickly led his army away, counting it good fortune enough if he made good his escape. And escape he did, but Messene was liberated.70

  13. Those are deeds which tell to Philopoemen’s credit. On the other side, there was his second spell in Crete.71 He was responding to an appeal from the people of Gortyn,72 who asked him to serve as general for their war. But many held it against him, for it took him away when his own country was under attack from Nabis; some said he was shunning danger, some that it was a badly timed piece of ambition among foreigners. Yet at the time the Megalopolitans were under such constant attack that they were forced to live within the walls and sow their crops in the streets, with their fields ravaged and the enemy encamped almost at the gates; and meanwhile, Philopoemen was away fighting Cretans, an overseas commander, so that his enemies naturally attacked him for running away from the war at home.

  There were some, however, who argued differently. The Achaeans had picked other men to be their generals,73 and Philopoemen was a private citizen: he had simply put his own leisure at the disposal of the Gortynians when they wanted him as their leader. For Philopoemen was no friend of leisure. It was as if he wanted to treat his skills as a general and soldier just like any other accomplishment, and keep them in constant action and use. He made that clear by the remark he once made about Ptolemy.74 Some people were praising the king for giving his army superb training every single day, and submitting his own body to an excellent, tough regime of exercise under arms. ‘And who’, asked Philopoemen, ‘can respect a king of that age who is training rather than achieving?’

  The Megalopolitans were indignant at Philopoemen’s absence, which they thought an act of betrayal, and they tried to exile him. But the Achaeans prevented this by sending their general Aristaenus75 to Megalopolis, a man who was Philopoemen’s political opponent, but who now prevented the condemnation from going through. The whole episode led Philopoemen’s fellow-citizens to ignore him pointedly when he returned, and so he incited many of the neighbouring villages to revolt, encouraging them to argue that they had not originally made any contribution to Megalopolis nor lived under its power; and he himself openly supported such arguments, and played a part in raising a faction to oppose Megalopolis in the assembly of the Achaeans.76

  But that was all later. For the moment he was busy helping the Gortynians in Crete. He did not behave like a traditional Peloponnesian and Arcadian and fight a simple, honourable war; instead, he adopted the Cretan style and used their type of clever trickery in developing a style of combat which was full of furtiveness and traps. He soon showed the Cretans up as mere boys at this sort of trade, and their tricks seemed silly and shallow when measured against the products of authentic experience.

  14. People admired him for this, and he returned to the Peloponnese with a brilliant reputation from these Cretan exploits. He found that Philip had been crushed by Titus,77 and that Nabis was at war with the Achaeans and with Rome.78

  He was immediately elected to a command79 in that campaign, and took the risk of engaging Nabis in a sea battle;80 but here his experience turned out to match that of Epaminondas,81 with his performance in naval contests falling far short of his own military excellence and reputation. But there was one difference. Some people say that Epaminondas was chary of allowing his countrymen any contact with the rewards of the sea, fearing lest (in Plato’s phrase82) they might change from steadfast hoplites into degenerate mariners; for that reason, so they say, Epaminondas deliberately returned from Asia and the islands without achieving anything. Philopoemen, on the other hand, was quite convinced83 that his infantry skills would stand him in good stead for naval contests as well, but he found out to his cost what a massive part of military excellence consists in training, and how much additional effectiveness it always gives to those who have experience.

  Philopoemen consequently lost the naval battle because of his lack of expertise, but that was not all. There was a particular ship, an old but famous one, which had not sailed for forty years.84 Philopoemen filled it with men and launched it, but it soon began to take on water, and the men on board were in great danger. His enemy thought little of him after that episode, and they formed the impression that he had totally given up the sea; Philopoemen himself was perfectly aware of this, and he also saw the arrogant confidence with which they were now prosecuting the siege of Gytheum.85 So he immediately sailed against them, taking them quite by surprise as they carelessly relaxed after their victory; and he disembarked his men by night, attacked the enemy and set fire to the tents, burning down the camp and killing many of their men.

  A few days later, Nabis suddenly appeared before him as he was marching through some difficult terrain. The Achaeans were alarmed, for it seemed inconceivable that they could fight their way to safety in such a tough position, with the enemy appearing to have them trapped. But Philopoemen waited for a short time and examined the terrain closely, and then gave a demonstration that tactical skill is the prince of all military arts. Thus he slightly altered the disposition of his own battle-line and adapted it to meet the danger, and calmly and easily overcame the difficulties which had seemed so hopeless; then he attacked the enemy and routed them thoroughly. He noticed that they had not made their escape to the city, but had scattered in different directions through the countryside. This was heavily wooded, with hills all around, and hard going for horses because of the numerous channels and ravines. Philopoemen halted the pursuit and pitched camp, even though it was still daylight. He realized that the enemy would try to steal back in ones and twos to the city under cover of darkness, and so he stationed a large force of the Achaeans in ambush on the streams and hills near the city, armed with short swords. That was where most of Nabis’ men met their deaths. Each of them was making his way back as best he could, and there was no concerted retreat: they were just like birds flying down into a trap, as one after another fell into their enemy’s hands near the city.86

  15. After this he was the darling of the Greeks, who piled honours upon him in their theatres; and Titus, fond as he was of honour, began to feel a little irritation.87 He was a Roman consul:88 did he not deserve more of the Achaeans’ admiration than this Arcadian fellow? And he thought his services were far greater than Philopoemen’s, given that by a single decree89 he had liberated all those parts of Greece which had been enslaved to Philip and the Macedonians. And so Titus made terms with Nabis and brought the war to an end;90 Nabis met his death, assassinated by the Aetolians;91 and Sparta was in turmoil. Philopoemen grasped his moment. He attacked in force,92 and by a mixture of compulsion and persuasion he brought the city over
to join the Achaeans. That won him extraordinary admiration among the Achaeans, such was the fame and power of the mighty city he had acquired; and indeed, it was no small achievement to make Sparta part of Achaea. He had also encouraged and strengthened the Spartan nobility, and they hoped to find in him the guardian of their freedom.

  They therefore voted to give him the proceeds of the sale of Nabis’ house and property, which amounted to 120 talents, and sent him an embassy to inform him.93 That was the moment when the man revealed himself in the purest light as possessing the reality of virtue, not just the semblance.94 In the first place, none of the Spartiates95 was willing to discuss bribery with a man like this, and in their nervousness and embarrassment they asked his guest-friend Timolaus96 to approach him. Timolaus duly went to Megalopolis. When he was entertained by Philopoemen, he saw at close quarters the gravity of his manner, the simplicity of his lifestyle and a character which was utterly impervious to corruption; so he said nothing about the gift, made up some other excuse for his visit and went away. He was sent a second time, and the same thing happened. On his third visit, he finally brought himself to reveal what the city wanted. Philopoemen listened with pleasure. Then he travelled to Sparta himself, and advised them not to waste their bribes on friends and men of quality, for they could enjoy their virtue free of charge. It was the evil men whom they should buy up and corrupt, and those who were opposing the city in the congress:97 that way the gifts might purchase silence and save the city trouble. It was wiser, he said, to deflect their enemies from plain speaking, not their friends. That is the measure of the man’s splendid attitude towards money.

  16. Then came news that more agitation was afoot in Sparta.98 Diophanes99 was now the general of the Achaeans, and when he heard this he determined to punish them; the Spartans too prepared for war, and this disturbed the whole Peloponnese. At this, Philopoemen tried to calm and restrain Diophanes. He pointed out the nature of the situation. They lay under the shadow of King Antiochus100 and of the Romans – both with their massive armies – and a good commander should turn his thoughts in that direction; he ought not to stir up trouble at home, but should turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to such misdemeanours. But Diophanes would not listen. Instead, he joined Titus in invading Laconia, and marched directly on Sparta itself.101 That stirred Philopoemen’s anger, and he did something which was not precedented nor strictly justifiable, but was certainly the great deed of a great-hearted man. He went to Sparta himself, and barred the entry of the Achaean general and the Roman consul,102 private citizen though he was;103 and he calmed down the internal agitation and brought the Spartans back into the league, just as they had been at the outset.

  Time passed, and Philopoemen himself had some grievance against the Spartans.104 He was general at the time,105 and he restored their exiles and killed a number of Spartiates, 80 according to Polybius, 350 according to Aristocrates.106 He took down the walls; he cut off a large part of their territory and gave it to the Megalopolitans; he took all those who had been given Spartan citizenship107 by the tyrant, and transported them to Achaea and settled them there, except for 3,000 who were unwilling to leave Sparta. These he sold into slavery, then used the money to build a portico in Megalopolis:108 that seemed to add insult to the injury.

  He had by now had enough of the Spartans. Their suffering had already outstripped their misdeeds, but Philopoemen continued to trample on them, and he treated the constitution in the most savage and unprecedented way imaginable: he dismantled and destroyed the Spartan system of education,109 and forced their children and young men to undergo the traditional Achaean education rather than that of their own country. The assumption was that they would never be cowed as long as they followed the laws of Lycurgus. This then was the time when their series of great disasters had forced them to offer their sinews to Philopoemen to cut, and they became submissive and humble. Years later they received permission from the Romans to abandon the Achaean political system, and they restored and re-established their traditional one,110 at least as far as was possible after such sufferings and destruction.

  17. When war broke out in Greece between the Romans and Antiochus,111 Philopoemen was a private citizen,112 but there were various sights which made him most irritated not to be in command: Antiochus himself was sitting in Chalcis,113 idling away his days in marriages and love-affairs with girls far too young for him, while the Syrians114 were wandering undisciplined and unsupervised around the cities and wallowing in luxury. ‘I envy the Romans their victory,’ Philopoemen would say. ‘If I had been general, I would have cut them all to pieces in their taverns.’

  After their victory,115 the Romans grew more and more involved in Greek affairs,116 and they began to bring the Achaeans under their power. The demagogues were not prepared to stand up to them; Roman strength, with Heaven’s help, grew steadily greater and more extensive; matters were approaching the end which the cycle of Fortune needed to reach.117 Now Philopoemen behaved like a good helmsman struggling against the tide. He accepted that he needed to make some concessions to circumstances, but carried on the struggle on most of the issues, and endeavoured to draw the most powerful speakers and statesmen in the direction of liberty.

  The most influential man among the Achaeans was now Aristaenus of Megalopolis,118 and he consistently cultivated the Romans, arguing that the Achaeans should do nothing to oppose or offend them. Philopoemen, they say, listened to him in the congress and said nothing, until finally his anger and indignation proved too much for him: ‘My dear man,’ he burst out, ‘why are you so eager to see the day of Greece’s destiny?’119 There was also an occasion when the Roman consul Manius120 had defeated Antiochus, and presented the Achaeans with a demand that they should allow the Spartan exiles to return.121 Titus supported Manius’ demand. Philopoemen refused to allow the Achaeans to agree: it was not that he was hostile to the exiles, but he wanted their return to be the work of himself and the Achaeans, and not to come about thanks to Titus and the Romans. When he was general the following year, he restored the exiles himself.122 That was the sort of combative and contentious approach to authority that his proud spirit inspired.

  18. He was already in his seventieth year when he was general of the Achaeans for the eighth time.123 By then he hoped not merely to escape warfare during his time in office, but also that events would allow him to spend the rest of his life in peace; rather as diseases become less acute as the human body loses its strength, so the Greek cities were becoming less contentious as they grew feebler. Yet a sort of nemesis124 overtook him as his life approached its conclusion, rather like an athlete who is running well near the end of his race.

  There is a story of a gathering when people were praising some man with a reputation for generalship: ‘How can one respect a man’, said Philopoemen, ‘who was taken alive by the enemy?’ And then a few days later Deinocrates125 of Messene, a man who was a personal enemy of Philopoemen and was generally disliked for his evil and immoral behaviour, led Messene in a rebellion from the Achaean League,126 and news arrived that he was on the point of taking a certain village called Colonides.127 At the time Philopoemen lay sick with a fever in Argos, but on hearing this he hurried to Megalopolis,128 covering more than 400 stades in a single day.129 From there he went straight on to the aid of Colonides. He had with him a cavalry force which consisted of the most prestigious of the citizens; but they were men who were still young, following Philopoemen as volunteers because of the goodwill and enthusiasm he inspired.

  They rode to Messene, Deinocrates came to meet them and the two forces engaged near the hill of Evander.130 The Megalopolitans turned Deinocrates himself to flight, but then there suddenly appeared a force of 500 men who were guarding the Messenian borders. The first army was already as good as defeated, but at the sight of this second force they gathered once again on the hills, and Philopoemen was nervous that he might be surrounded. He was also keen to spare the horsemen. So he retreated through difficult terrain, stationing himself at the
rear and frequently making sallies against the enemy so as to draw them all against his own person. The Messenians did not dare to return his attacks, but circled around and cried out noisily in the distance. Philopoemen had to keep stopping because of the young men under his command, and sent one after another off to safety, till he suddenly found himself cut off in the middle of the enemy.

  Still no one dared to fight him at close quarters, but the missiles rained in on him from a distance, and he was forced back onto some steep and rocky ground. It was hard to handle his horse, and he kept tearing him with his spurs. Philopoemen bore his old age lightly thanks to his continual hard training, and there was no impediment there to his escape. But his recent illness had made him weak, and he was weary from the march; he grew sluggish and immobile, and was finally thrown to the ground when his horse slipped. It was a hard fall, and he suffered a blow to the head. He lay silent for a long time, so that the enemy thought he was dead and tried to move and despoil the body. At that point he raised his head and opened his eyes. They all fell on him, twisted his hands behind his back, bound him and led him away. As they did so they piled insults and abuse upon him, a man who would never have dreamed that he could suffer such a thing at the hands of Deinocrates.

  19. Back in the city131 everyone was extraordinarily excited by the news, and they crowded to the gates. But when they saw Philopoemen dragged along as a prisoner, it seemed so unworthy of his glory and his achievements and triumphs of old that most were moved to pity and sympathy: the tears welled as they reflected on the fragility and transience and emptiness of human greatness. Then, gradually a mood of generosity spread among the ordinary people.132 Should they not recall the blessings he had brought them in the past, and the freedom he had restored by expelling the tyrant Nabis?133 There were only a few who played for Deinocrates’ favour and urged that the man be tortured and killed as a stern and implacable foe – and one who would be all the more dangerous to Deinocrates if he were to escape death after being captured and humiliated at his hands. So, despite the opposition, they took him to the so-called Treasury. This was an underground cavern without light and air; it was not blocked off by a door, but by a great rock which was rolled up to it. They imprisoned him there, placed the rock in position and stationed an armed guard all around.